Tag: Graduate Studies

(This is a provisional summary of what I have written on this topic so far) In discussing the complex concept of the “State of Exception” Georgio Agamben traces the origin of current normative and central role of the State of Exception through a discussion of the two competing Roman concepts of Auctoritas and Potestas. Auctoritas,…

Yesterday was the last day of my summer graduate seminar on Postmodernism and also my last day of teaching at Kent State University. I came to Kent State in the fall of 2006 immediately after finishing my Ph.D. at Florida State. Looking back at my three and a half years at Kent as a full-time…

By Alex Hall and Caleb Berkemeier (Reading Notes for Linda Hutcheon’s A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction) Chapter One: In this first chapter, entitled “Theorizing the Postmodern: Toward a Poetics,” Linda Hutcheon informs the reader that the purpose of this book is to attempt a thorough definition of “postmodernism”—a concept that she claims is…

I recently found myself stating in one of my classes that conservative thought was inherently incompatible with humanistic inquiry and praxis. Though I offered a brief explanation of my statement to my class, I felt that there was a need to further expound my statement and to trace the very geneology of my desire to…

(Note: These two entries were chosen as the two Best Journal Responses in my Graduate course on Postmodernism and are posted here with the authors’ permission. This entry should be read in conjunction with “Postmodernism: Introductory Notes” and the earlier entry on Ihab Hassan) By Alex Hall In “Toward a Concept of Postmodernism,” from Ihab…

By Caleb Anthony Berkemeier (Note: This was chosen as the Best Journal Response in my Graduate course on Postmodernism and is posted here with the author’s permission. This entry should be read in conjunction with “Postmodernism: Introductory Notes“) Presently, it would be hard to find a more contentious topic of discussion than the meaning of…

Time and the River, Heinemann/Harcourt, 2007, By Zee Edgell Published in 2007, Time and the River is by far the most intriguing and enlightening work by the Belizean author Zee Edgell, author of highly acclaimed novel Beka Lamb. In the literary circles of United States, the slave narrative is an established form of writing that…